The present invention relates to lighting fixtures which may be utilized to illuminate exhibits and displays. More particularly, the invention relates to lighting fixtures which produce a washed lighting effect in that they do not produce highly lighted spots with surrounding relatively dark areas but provide substantially uniform lighting of display wall or broad exhibit area.
Classically, exhibit and display lighting has been accomplished by the use of spot lights with the incandescent light source surrounded by a metallic canister-type enclosure. Such lighting devices are heavy and must be appropriately vented for convection air circulation so that they do not become over heated. Attempts have been made to fabricate spot lights and other display illuminating devices of plastic materials but such lights and devices have failed to pass Underwriter Laboratory certification because the common plastic materials of fabrication become charred, burn or melt under the heat generated by the enclosed light source. Even vented head, molded thermoplastic light fixtures, with an inner reflector, have been found to generate such great heat as to be unsafe. There is a great need for exhibit and display lighting fixtures which are of light-weight, which readily disperse the heat generated by high wattage incandescent and halogen light sources and which provide uniform and which provide uniform or washed lighting over wide areas.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an exhibit or display lighting device of light weight which yields substantially uniform illumination over a broad area with only a safe build-up of heat throughout the device.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an exhibit or display illumination device, having a head structure formed of a molded thermoplastic material, which includes a high wattage light source and internal reflector and which disperses the heat generated by the light source so that the device remains at a safe operating temperature during long periods of lighting utilization.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide an exhibit or display lighting device or light-weight construction incorporating a high wattage halogen light source and reflector system which yields a substantially uniform washed lighting effect over a broad surface area.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide an illumination device having a light-weight vented head formed of a molded thermoplastic material and including a wall washer type metallic reflector and a high intensity light source for use in the illumination of exhibit and display walls in replacement of a multitude of spot lights.
Other subjects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following summary and detailed descriptions of a preferred embodiment of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures.